Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (10591)	12/6/2010 9:16:56 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 69300

By the great and powerful GOSH, I surely hope you don't mean Elron! I hear it told that he invented "scientology" (and what a magnificently cynical name that is) as the consequence of a poker bet. While I can't find a link (and must therefore leave the story in my True Rumors™ File) there is something about that tale that rings fiendishly true.

To: Solon who wrote (10591)	12/8/2010 8:55:31 AM
From: average joe	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 69300

Vancouver police constable charged after disabled woman pushed to ground By Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun December 8, 2010 5:35 AM Sandy Davidsen, the disabled woman with CF and MS who was pushed over by Vancouver police in June, leading to a police complaints commission investigation, a criminal investigation, a civil suit, and a human rights complaint, chats on Hastings street A Vancouver police officer has been charged with assault after a Downtown Eastside resident with cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis complained in June she had been pushed to the ground on a crowded Hastings Street sidewalk. After a security video of the incident was made public in July — clearly showing one officer pushing Sandy Davidsen down and then walking away with his two colleagues — Vancouver police asked New Westminster police to investigate. Following a three-month investigation, New Westminster police forwarded a report to Crown counsel recommending a charge of assault against one of the police officers. On Tuesday, Crown approved an assault charge against Const. Taylor Robinson, New Westminster Sgt. Gary Weishaar said in a statement. Vancouver police issued a brief statement Tuesday saying Robinson, who has been with the department less than two years, has been placed on administrative duty. (After the incident, he had been re-assigned off Hastings Street.) The department said it would make no further comment with the case now before the courts. In a rare interview, Davidsen told The Sun recently that she believed all three police officers had acted incorrectly that day. “That one guy pushed me down, but the other two, they knew me but they didn’t do anything to help me,” said Davidsen, 27, who grew up in Richmond. “I wish that they actually picked me up.” Several weeks after the incident, Davidsen received a letter, signed by a Const. Taylor Robinson, explaining the 98-pound woman was pushed down due to concern she was reaching for an officer’s gun. The letter offered an apology that she was not helped up. Davidsen, who moves her arms as she walks to keep her balance, said she wasn’t reaching for a gun and didn’t find the qualified apology sincere. She hoped the legal action she has taken will lead to additional sensitivity training for police. A lawyer representing Davidsen last month filed a human rights tribunal complaint and a $25,000 civil suit on her behalf, claiming the officer who pushed her over showed no compassion for her health issues. “I want to prove to them, this is how they treat people on the Eastside and pick on anybody here because they think they’ve got the power. This is the poorest place, and we are trying to get by,” she said. “I want justice.” Davidsen is not a woman without troubles. Her health problems make it difficult for her to move around. She has been in the Downtown Eastside since the age of 20, and struggles with a drug addiction. She lives in a single room in a building run by RainCity Housing, which provides shelter and support “for people with unresolved health needs and complex housing behaviours.” She often struggled to verbally express herself during the interview, and at one point dropped her cigarette when her swaying body was jostled by a passerby on the sidewalk. She swore and a friend picked up the smouldering butt, since her cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis make it difficult for Davidsen to bend over. The incident did not seem dissimilar to her encounter with the police officers. Davidsen’s small claims court lawsuit, filed in Provincial Court, is seeking $25,000 in damages, alleging she suffered mental anguish, humiliation and malicious treatment. The human rights complaint alleges Vancouver police discriminated against her by not accommodating her disability. New Westminster police continue to conduct a Police Act probe, which is separate from the criminal investigation, into the three officers’ actions. In July, Vancouver police issued a statement saying it “places a very high value on the relationships it has with the many residents and organizations in the Downtown Eastside.” vancouversun.com